NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration

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NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration

In celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2008, NASA is collaborating with SITES and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the exhibition NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration. Drawn from the collections of NASA and the National Air and Space Museum, the exhibition features 72 works of art commissioned by the NASA Art Program. Established soon after the inception of the U.S. space program in 1958, NASA’s Art Program provides a unique way to communicate the accomplishments, setbacks, and sheer excitement of space exploration to the public. The selected works span the entire history of NASA and include paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, and other media by such artists as Annie Leibovitz, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Jamie Wyeth.

In celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary, the Discovery Channel partnered with NASA to produce “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions,” a miniseries that explores the missions, the people and the triumphs of space exploration. Narrated by Apollo 13 actor Gary Sinise, the series chronicles the inside story of NASA's most epic endeavors. The six one-hour episodes include Ordinary Supermen, Friends and Rivals, Landing the Eagle, The Explorers, The Shuttle, and Home in Space.